Of Villas, Apartments and Vacation Plans

Years ago, I featured one of the Italian villas in Lignano. That where we stayed at with the whole family along with my parents-in-law and my brother-in-law’s family. It’s a simple compound with a pool, reachable by foot by the bus station and relatively just a few minutes away from grocery stores, restaurants, the plaza and the beach. There are also arcade centers to the kids’ enjoyment. We could bring them there if they get tired swimming.

We occupied two rooms at the second floor and from there, we could see the villa pool from the rooms. The kids would be up early, ready for the pool. There are lifeguards around and since they could be seen from our room, we do not worry a lot about their safety, oma or opa would accompany them while we have coffee or tea at our room’s balcony. They have their arm floats too and the other swimmers look out on them somehow.

Lignano plazakids loving the pool

We also stayed at a Villa with a lot of rooms in Balaton, Hungary, this one is more of a 2-storey house in a fenced lot with a pool too, all for ourselves. (Story link is on the sidebar.)

Renting villas or apartments when on a long-term vacation has its ups and downs. It’s cheaper than when staying in a hotel. The rates are lower, perhaps 1/3 of a daily hotel rate but convenience-wise, you cook for yourself, clean the place yourself. The extra hours you spent at the apartment cleaning and cooking could already be hours spent shopping and sightseeing unless the place offers bed and breakfast and cleaning services.

It could be said that renting a villa or an apartment for a vacation is like home away from home. You get to do the same things you do at home in a different setting, a different view and environment.

Our summer vacation may be over, winter has enveloped the region and it’s too early to plan for next year. Since we plan on going from city to city, country to country (yes, that’s a big dream on our bucket list); we are planning on renting one of the really charming villas in Athens or Barcelona, or probably an apartment in Nice. It’s a really convenient thing that online reservation websites have a long-range time-table. We could book as early as now for next year’s vacation. We’d definitely book one with pool and which is near the beach, that that serves breakfast and has house cleaning included.

haven’t tried renting villas yet, for some reasons, the places I love to go to always don’t have villas nearby, usually the villas in National Parks are like 60-120 miles away, and that is too much driving for us, like we are wasting several hours everyday on the road instead of hiking right away, so, we always end up with whatever lodging accommodations are available within the National Parks.

We haven’t stayed in any villas when we visited Italy few years ago as we have relatives there. But I would certainly consider the opportunity of visiting the countryside and explore their scenic beauties and booking in villas to experience all the local life.

hmmmm love the sight of the pool! thanks for the awesome tips, I just wish I could have the time and resources to travel far with my loved ones, for now I enjoy traveling virtually through awesome sites like yours with great content and ideas 🙂